The Coroner’s Office on Sunday identified the motorcyclist who was struck and killed by an 18-year-old drunken motorist speeding away from California Highway Patrol officers in North Hills.
The motorcyclist was identified as Peter Dean, 56, of Northridge, said Coroner’s Lt. Fred Corral.
The crash was on Nordhoff Street at the exit from the southbound San Diego (405) Freeway at 10:30 p.m. Friday, according to a CHP crash report.
Two CHP officers on patrol said they saw a driver, later identified as Cristian Alexander, of Sylmar, speeding in a 2007 Kia southbound on the 405. They activated their patrol vehicle’s emergency lights in order to conduct an enforcement stop of the Sylmar resident’s vehicle.
Alexander, still speeding, got off the freeway at the Nordhoff Street exit and applied his brakes in an attempt to slow down just prior to the intersection, the CHP report said. He was unable to stop and continued out of control from the offramp through the intersection.
A westbound motorcycle emerged from the underpass and the Kia smashed into it.
The car continued through the intersection and struck a traffic signal pole. It came to a stop on the south side of Nordhoff Street near the 405 Freeway southbound onramp.
Arriving paramedics pronounced Bean dead at the scene.
Alexander and his passenger, a 21-year-old man from Sylmar, were taken to North Hills Hospital with minor injuries. Alexander was later arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and booked into the Van Nuys jail.
Under state law, charges such as vehicular homicide can be filed by prosecutors after they get the crash report from CHP investigators.
— City News Service